Third Sunday of Lent: Reflecting on Jesus’ Commandment to Love Our Neighbor
Jesus asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Certainly, we love our neighbor. We have raised our children, given our lives in the service of others, taken care of the sorrowful, the lonely and the poor.
Yet, our love for others can be so easily cheapened. We can fear to go beyond lifelong relationships and include those in need. We can say or passively listen to an unkind word without compassionately responding with a compliment toward the person belittled. We can pit one against another. We can arrogantly belittle one another. We can abandon each other in the depth of need.
Am I really loving those who God has placed in my life? Am I excluding someone, failing to make time for someone, or writing them off in judgment?
As we pray during this third week of Lent, perhaps we can ponder:
- Is God calling me this Lenten season to a deeper, more radical care and concern of someone in my life who needs special tenderness and compassion?
- Is God calling me to have a more inclusive love?
- If each of us would choose one person to love more deeply this Lenten season, the world would become more loving place. Let us be about this task!